Call for Applications, Due 1 August 2011:Are you working on issues related to gender and human rights in (or in relationship to) the Americas? Are you working at the intersections of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity with or in tension with human rights language? Are you in a partnership between community organizers and university-based activist scholars?

We are currently seeking local organizers, activists, community members, and activist scholars to submit projects that will shape the October 2012, Austin, Texas, U.S., conference: Rethinking Power & Resistance: Gender & Human Rights from Texas to the Global, a project of the Embrey Women's Human Rights Initiative. Three or four select applicants will receive a small stipend, travel funding to attend our 2012 conference for network-building, and the opportunity for your issues to shape the conference.

We hope to hear from local, national, or international community and academic collaborations which examine the relationship of women, LGBT communities, and communities of color in the Americas to women's human rights. We invite applicants to critique, reimagine, and explore the usefulness (or lack of usefulness) of human rights language for ending the many manifestations of gender violence, including issues of economic rights, environmental justice, immigration, incarceration/detention, land rights, political repression, reproductive justice, resource sharing, sexuality, and more.

We invite interested collaborators to apply for seed funding. An organizing committee of community advocates and activist scholars will select three or four exemplary community/university collaborations. We will shape the 2012 conference around the issues of these collaborations in order to build conversations across borders. The conference will offer networking opportunities, workshops, discussions, and performances with advocates and scholars working on related issues.

See below for application instructions.

Save the Date:Rethinking Power & Resistance: Gender & Human Rights from Texas to the Global5-6 October 2012 :: Austin, Texas, U.S.

Rethinking Power & Resistance will be a small two-day conference on women's human rights in the Americas (or in relationship to the Americas) prioritizing networking, workshops, and interdisciplinary activism including arts-based advocacy. The conference will focus on a few specific issues to create space for deep discussion, multiple strategies, and transnational alliances. The conference will be shaped around community/university collaborations, from local, national, or international contexts, which use or question the use of human rights language to address issues of gender justice. This conference will be an opportunity to collaboratively examine the relationship of women, LGBT communities, and communities of color to women's human rights as it pertains to issues including economic rights, environmental justice, immigration, incarceration/detention, land rights, political repression, reproductive justice, resource sharing, sexuality, and more. We invite participants to critique, reimagine, and explore the usefulness (or lack of usefulness) of human rights language for ending the many manifestations of gender violence.

Seed Money Applications:The seed money will include a small stipend and travel funding (to attend the 2012 conference) awarded to organizing efforts that emphasize community and academic collaboration. We prioritize community/university collaborations, though we will consider cross-community or cross-university collaborations. We also warmly welcome applications that focus on regions and societies aside from the Americas as long as the proposal specifically addresses how the given issue relates across these geographic contexts. This can be a project that is already in the development and early implementation phase, or this could be a project that is in the initiation phase and would benefit in its movement from these funds. Applications will be reviewed by a panel of community and academic conference organizers in August 2011; we will select 3-4 applications for seed money.

1. Each of these partnerships will receive $250 in seed money in September 2011.2. Each of these partnerships will receive between $500-1,000 in travel support to attend and talk about your project at the 2012 international conference on women's human rights in Austin, Texas.We will invite the selected partner organizers to contribute news and writings about their projects for project-beneficial web-based discussions building up to and reflecting on the conference.

Conference Support:The conference is a project of the Embrey Women's Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Women's & Gender Studies, University of Texas at Austin.

Seed Money for the conference comes from these University of Texas at Austin units:Center for Asian American StudiesCenter for Women's & Gender StudiesCenter for Mexican American StudiesCommunity Engagement CenterDepartment of EnglishGender & Sexuality CenterLozano Long Institute for Latin American StudiesUniversity of Texas Libraries

Your letter of interest (1-2 pages) should include:1. Short description of the collaboration;2. Short description of the relationship to gender and human rights;3. Short bios for the community and university participants; and4. Statement of commitment to travel to the October 2012 Rethinking Power & Resistance conference in Austin, Texas, to discuss the collaborative work.